H68.2043.901       2 Credits

This course is designed to provide the tools and techniques for directors who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the actor’s craft in order to guide an actor to their best performance. The class explores the actor’s world through a curriculum that isolates techniques for directors to use in casting, rehearsing, and on-set production.  Students in this six- week basic acting course will work as both actors and directors.  Improvisation, exercises and scene work are used to learn the actor’s “language”, to de-mystify the skills and potential of the actor and to challenge and stretch the director’s skills. We will workshop scenes from the director’s MOS projects as well as other film scripts. There will be a casting session during which directors will audition and “cast” from a pool of professional actors both in person and on tape. Creative collaboration between directors and actors is the ultimate goal.

“Of course the film director should know acting, it’s history and techniques. The more he knows about acting, the more at ease he will be with actors. At one period of his growth, he should force himself onstage or before the camera so he knows this experientially too.” – Elia Kazan

Additional sections of the same course (H68.2043.902, .903, etc.) may be offered.